


Stories of the Second Self: Power Shift

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [142]
Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Police - Fandom, Stranger Things (TV 2016), Urban Fantasy - Fandom, witches - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:35:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22690105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Working another power shift, Officer Pedro Hortez spots a cloudy apparition over Norwood that dwarfs even his own fourteen foot, two inch height. Joining Officer Daniel Yi, Pedro cruise throughout the neighborhood on the lookout for suspicious magic practitioners.
Series: Alter Idem [142]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Power Shift

Officer Pedro Hortez saw something in the lightning-illuminated storm front, though he initially figured it was his imagination. The apparition reminded Hortez of the giant monsters in the Stephen King book striding over the land atop such spindly legs as to be impossible. Ahead was Officer Daniel Yi's car and Hortez pulled up to the side of it.

"Okay," Office Pedro Hortez said to himself, after he had crested the hill in his police cruiser modified into what looked like a huge scooter. "That's enough of these power shifts."

Yi stepped out, the light-bending feathers of his angelic wings catching the mild nighttime breeze, while he was talking on his radio, "Three David Five onsite, and Eighty-Three, Twenty-Four just arrived."

Eighty-Three, Twenty-Four was Hortez's unit number, which classified him along with Mounted Patrol units. That was because Hortez stood thirteen feet, four inches tall and clearly couldn't go indoors.

"Copy, Three David Five," Dispatch acknowledged, "Lieutenant says you should be able to see it from there."

"Yeah, I saw it," Yi responded, and lowered his handset.

"So it's not just me." Hortez didn't really take relief at that discovery. "Other than Lovecraft being right, what do you think's going on?"

"What makes you so sure it's not real?" Yi turned up to Hortez.

"That big and it doesn't rumble the ground on approach?" Hortez pointed out, "Sure, it's got cloud cover and night now, but there's no way it just wanders around the state and not be noticed in the day. Barring an opening to hell, I'm going with some sort of prank."

"That's an awfully big prank," Yi remarked, and then spoke after another lightning flash. "Dispatch, we see it. At its size it can’t tromp around without a whole lot of noise. Did the caller describe anything else with the sighting?"

"No, just that it was hunkering over Norwood," Display answered.

"Okay, we'll need someone from Pentacaste Division then," Yi said, and looked up to Hortez as he finished, "This might be some kind of illusion spell to mess with residents."

"It may be a while Three David Five," Dispatch warned.

"Copy Dispatch," Yi accepted, "Over and out."

"Sweet life for detectives," Hortez chided without much humor.

"Yeah, I can't wait to qualify," Yi agreed, seeming to have missed Hortez's derision.

"Cole told me that about you," Hortez said, as the two kept staring and the dark patch of clouds where the monstrous Lovecraftian ant creature last appeared.

"What made you think it's not real, anyway?" Yi asked.

"Physics," Hortez answered, and after a pause added, "When I was getting my law degree I focused on criminal defense. Part of that is challenging forensics experts. So, I racked up some science and medical credits. Wrote my thesis on the fallibility of professional testimony."

"What's stopping you from making detective then?" Yi asked.

Hortez tapped his own chest. "Kinda incompatible with department desk work. Well, Probationary Detective, how do you want to handle this?"

"I don't know what goes into making illusions," Yi admitted, "but uncommon as this is I gotta think not many can pull this off. The Fae have the innate ability, so I'm guessing if we drive around down there we'll see one of them out there doing something unusual. I'll put us on a Code Six until we come up with something or Pentacaste Division shows up."

"Alright," Hortez replied, and got back on his scooter.

Pulling back from the hilltop, Hortez then steered back onto the road. He picked more northern route into Norwood while Yi chose a street south. Hortez cruised slowly and swept both sides of the road with a light. Lacking a door-mounted light and doors as well, Hortez resorted to using his D-cell powered Mag-Lite which he held like a pencil.

By the time Hortez got to the east side of Norwood he spotted a young Fae woman with ten-point antlers standing on a corner. Technically an elder in the Fae caste system just because of antler points, she was a bit shorter than most elders. She stared at the roiling clouds where Hortez knew the apparition was located.

Slowing the car to walking pace, Hortez pulled off the road by her. "Miss, could you come over here? I need to talk to you."

"Wha..., ah sure, I guess," the Fae woman said, and then remarked on seeing Hortez and his vehicle. "Ohh! They have you drive that?"

"Yes," Hortez answered to quickly get that out of the way, and then started questioning her. "What's your name, please?"

"Miranda Imura," she replied, and traded between looking up to him and toward the cloud creature when storm flashes permitted.

Hortez inquired about her date of birth, her Bureau of Pentacaste Affairs status, and ran her BPA card on his plastic sheet covered laptop, before explaining, "Okay, the reason I stopped you is we have reason to believe that's some illusion being used to scare residents. Do you know anything about that?"

"No," Miranda said, "I just came out to see what was going on."

"When did you first notice it?" Hortez asked.

"It's magic," Miranda revealed, "and I was sensing that. You must've stopped me because I'm a Fae, but I couldn't make an illusion that big. Most can't, whether they're Fae or not."

"So it's an illusion?" Hortez iterated for clarification.

"I think so," Miranda said, "But they got some real stuff going on in there too. It doesn't have the look of an illusion that we can see right through."

"Could you explain that?" Hortez instructed, and turned down his radio when another call came through to compete with his conversation.

"I can tell an illusion from what's real just by looking at it," Miranda explained, and then shook her head as she gazed at the clouds, "But this spell is affecting real life. I think they formed it out of the clouds and maybe dust. Don't suppose you saw the show, Stranger Things?"

"Not my forte," Hortez admitted, figuring he got enough supernatural from his job and from life. "What's that show got to do with this?"

"They got this thing that lives in another universe that kinda looks like it's made out of vapors or something," Miranda said, "So it's real big but not heavy. Whoever made this hasn't figured out how to make it move yet, but they have more power than anyone I know."

"Thank you Miranda, that's very helpful," Hortez praised, and then stared up at the clouds held in place. "Hmm--."

"Hey, I could help trace it down if you want," Miranda offered.

"We got someone coming for that," Hortez refused out of department policy. "But I appreciate the offer. If you get anymore information call the tip line, and don't go out looking for those responsible yourself."

A new flash exposed the most detail so far, whereon Hortez could see that the thing stood on just the two spidery legs he'd seen the previous times, and increasingly accepted the illusion description. The creature did have an unfinished look to it, as though only half of a demonic ant made it through some portal to hell before it closed.

"Three David Five to Eighty-Three, Twenty-Four," Yi called over the radio, "Anything come up yet?"

Hortez pulled up the handset, tiny in his baseball bat thick fingers, and his glanced to Miranda as he spoke, "Uh, yeah, think so. Got a witness here who tells me this is a bit more complicated than a normal illusion, and they're pretty sure the person or people behind it are pumping a lot of juju into it, or whatever that magic stuff is."

"I just heard that the Pentacaste guys are out here now," Yi replied, "Though, we're to keep patrolling and report anything we think is connected."

"Got it," Hortez replied, "Thanks. Out."

Throughout the night, Officer Hortez cruised through Norwood neighborhoods until he past by a park. There, he saw several people sitting in a circle about a hundred yards from the road.

Simply stopping his scooter and flashing the lights was enough to alert the late night gathering of Hortez's interest. They all hastily rose up and, Hortez could make out, appeared to all grab pets and run off in different directions.

Thinking to give a foot chase, Hortez got a jolt from a sky-shattering crack of thunder, within which he thought he heard a beastly moan. Checking up at the captured storm clouds, Hortez saw through the lesser lightning flashes that the apparition unraveled before his eyes, and figured that the sound it made was liken to a final wailing of the creature's death.

Once again thinking about those gathered, Hortez pointed his flashlight out at the park grounds, but found none of the people or their animals.

"Looks like we'll be out here again, when they take another shot," Hortez surmised to himself.


End file.
